THE WILD PARTY is presented through special arrangement with
Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-541-4684 Fax: 212-397-4684
www.MTIShows.com

2

UWM Peck School of Art

musical numbers
ACT I
Opening.............................................................................................................Queenie, Burrs, Ensemble
The Apartment.................................................................................................Queenie, Burrs, Ensemble
Out of the Blue....................................................................................................................... Queenie, Burrs
What a Party....................................................................................................................................Ensemble
Raise the Roof...............................................................................................................Queenie, Ensemble
Look at Me Now........................................................................................................................................ Kate
Poor Child........................................................................................................Queenie, Burrs, Black, Kate
An Old-Fashioned Love Story.................................................................................................... Madelaine
The Juggernaut.........................................................................Queenie, Burrs, Black, Kate, Ensemble
A Wild, Wild Party......................................................................Queenie, Burrs, Oscar, Phil, Ensemble
Two of a Kind................................................................................................................................ Eddie, Mae
Of All the Luck........................................................................................................................Queenie, Black
Maybe I Like It This Way.................................................................................................................. Queenie
What Is It About Her?..............................................................................................................................Burrs
- 10 Minute Intermission ACT II
The Life of the Party................................................................................................................................. Kate
Who Is This Man................................................................................................................................ Queenie
The Gal for Me.......................................................................................................................Black, Queenie
Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll Be Here..................................................................................................................................................Black
Listen To Me....................................................................................................Queenie, Burrs, Black, Kate
Let Me Drown..................................................................................................................... Burrs, Ensemble
The Fight...........................................................................................................................................Ensemble
Come With Me..................................................................................................Queenie, Black, Ensemble
Make Me Happy........................................................................................................Queenie, Burrs, Black
Poor Child Reprise.................................................................................................................Queenie, Black
How Did We Come to This?............................................................................................................ Queenie

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February Programs

3

d i r e c to r ’ s n o t e s
Andrew Lippa’s THE WILD PARTY, based on the 1928 Joseph Moncure March poem of
the same name, premiered at The Manhattan Theatre Club in 2000. It won the Drama
Desk Award for Outstanding Music, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding OffBroadway Musical, three Lucille Lortel Awards, and one Obie Award. It was nominated for
twelve additional Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding New Musical.
The book-length poem was completed in 1926 but not published until 1928 because of
fear of the raw, explicit sexuality and drug use it portrayed. It is the story of a decadent
all night party thrown by Queenie and Burrs, two vicious and reckless Vaudeville
performers caught in an ill-fated relationship marked by jealousy, rage and lust.
The musical structure is challenging and complex. Lippa utilizes musical styles from the
jazz age as well as contemporary pop/Broadway style songs with a healthy dose of sungthrough dialogue similar to operatic writing. The ensemble act as the party guests - a
mixture of people living on the fringes of society- performers, composers, boxers, whores
and even a “minor” tossed in for fun. They also have an important function as the “Greek
Chorus” of the story - they melt in and out of the action, commenting and joining
in at will.
Taking on a musical of this difficulty demonstrates the fierce commitment to the students
at the UWM Musical Theatre program that I, as a guest director, have seen firsthand
throughout this process. Darci Wutz and Tony Horne felt that the students were up to the
challenge and that this would be a great opportunity for them to really push to the edge
of their abilities in all areas - acting, dancing and singing. The story is tough, the dances
are many, and the music is downright hard. They took everything Darci, Kerry and I threw
at them and made it their own. Enjoy watching the next generation of musical theatre
performers as they take you on a wild and raucous ride tonight.
Paula Suozzi
Biogr aphies
Paula Suozzi (Stage Director) has been
directing opera, theater and musical
theatre since 1989. She has worked all
over the country directing, remounting
and assistant directing at such companies
as the San Francisco Opera Association,
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan
Opera Association, Opera Pacific, Toledo
Opera, Cinncinnati Opera, Tulsa Opera,
and the Lyric Opera of Cleveland. In
Wisconsin, she was the Associate Artistic
Director of Skylight Music Theatre from
1997-2003 and the Artistic Director of
Milwaukee Shakespeare from 2003 -2008.
Recently, she has guest directed with
Forward Theater Company in Madison,
and the Florentine Opera Company here
in Milwaukee. Her teaching experience
ranges from teaching the company class
at First Stage to coaching the finalists for
4

UWM Peck School of Art

the Metropolitan Opera contestants. It
was challenging to work with university
students, most on the cusp of heading out
into the world, and therefore she hopes
there she said something useful to them.
Paula’s other full time jobs are co-owner of
Starting Line Athletics—a personal training
company, mom to Dorothea and Carmela,
and wife to Jonathan West.
Kerry Hart Bieneman (Music Director/
Conductor) holds a Bachelor of Music
degree (magna cum laude) in Vocal
Performance from Lawrence University
and a Master of Music degree in Vocal
Performance from Northwestern
University. She is an active pianist and
singer throughout southeastern WI.
Kerry has served as a private vocal coach
and accompanist for Florentine Opera,

Biogr aphies

c o n t.

Skylight Music Theatre, Opera for the
Young, Bel Canto Chorus, Milwaukee Rep,
Waukesha Choral Union, and Northwestern
University. She has sung with Florentine
Opera, Skylight Music Theatre, Milwaukee
Opera Theatre, and Opera for the Young.
At UWM, she teaches voice lessons to
classical and musical theatre singers,
co-teaches an opera workshop class,
teaches a vocal jazz class, and is the music
director for the opera. Kerry was the
recipient of two awards at the Wisconsin
District Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions. She has also received
a Downbeat Award for her work as a jazz
singer. She has been the Assistant Choral
Director of the KIDS from Wisconsin since
2005. Kerry also enjoys serving as the
music director, choir director, and pianist at
Peace Lutheran Church in Burlington.
Darci Brown Wutz (Choreographer;
Coordinator/PSOA Inter-Arts’ BFA in
Musical Theatre Performance) holds a
BFA in Theatre/Dance Emphasis from the
University of MN, Duluth, and an MFA in
Dance Performance and Choreography
from Smith College. After teaching at
UMD, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Alverno
College, Darci served as Director of
Dance in the Dept. of Performing Arts at
Marquette University before joining the
Dance faculty at UWM. Choreographer of
over 48 musical theatre and non-musical
theatre productions, as well as an equal
number of concert works, Darci has
worked in regional and national theatre,
including the Minnesota Repertory
Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater
and Stackner Cabaret, First Stage,
Skylight Musical Theatre, Milwaukee
Chamber Theatre, Theatre X, Renaissance
Theaterworks, Waukesha Civic Theatre and
the Sunset Playhouse. She was awarded a
substantial research grant from the UWM
Graduate School Research Award for her
concert work, “The Memory of All That”, a
historical look at American musical theatre
choreography, which is the focus of her
ongoing research. She also co-authored
the Peck School of the Arts’ Inter Arts

BFA in Musical Theatre Performance. In
addition to numerous concert dance works
presented at UWM, her recent musical
theatre endeavors include productions of
West Side Story, Oklahoma!, Kiss Me Kate,
SHOWTUNES, Hula Hoop Shaboop, and
most recently UWM’s productions of No,
No Nanette! and Into the Woods. She served
as Artist in Residence for ProDanza Italia in
Tuscany, Italy, teaching dance technique
and choreographic styles in Musical
Theatre. She would like to dedicate this
production to her mentor, Joyce Torvund,
who first introduced her to the world of
dance in musical theatre.
Jessica Peck (Production Manager/Stage
Manager/Master Electrician) has enjoyed
the opportunity to stage manage The Wild
Party. It has been wonderful chance to
work with such a talented cast on such a
large project. Jessica comes to UWM from
working at Skylight Music Theatre as an
electrician and lighting programmer but
was also lucky enough to be able to stage
manage their production of Things That Go
Ding!. Before that she spent a season with
the Milwaukee Repertory Theater as an
electrics intern for Cabaret and Bombshells,
then as assistant stagehand on The 39 Steps
and Bombitty of Errors. Jessica received
her BA in Theatre from Ripon College.
While going to school, she was stage
manager for Arcadia and Fuente Ovejuna;
lighting designer on Anatomy of Gray and
Eurydice; and worked on a number of other
crews. Finally, a huge thank you to her
wonderful husband, supportive family, and
hard working student crew who all helped
to make this show happen.
Noele Stollmack (Scenic and Lighting
Designer)
Recent projects include lighting design
for the world premiere of The Meaning of
Almost Everything by Jeff Daniels at the
Purple Rose Theatre; Shakespeare’s Will,
Skylight and Heroes at American Players
Theatre; as well as Susannah, Idomeneo
and Carmen at the Florentine Opera. Her
scenery and lighting design includes: The
February Programs

5

Biogr aphies

c o n t.

Rape of Lucretia at Toledo Opera; Venus and
Adonis/Dido and Aeneas, Río de Sangre, The
Magic Flute, Macbeth and Rigoletto for the
Florentine Opera; Pagliacci at Opera Columbus; Jingle Bells, Batman Smells for First
Stage Children’s Theatre; and the Milwaukee Rep’s Mirandolina. Past lighting design
features: The Clarence Brown Theatre
production of The Merry Wives of Windsor;
numerous productions for American Players Theatre; the Florentine Opera’s Grammy
Award-winning Elmer Gantry; Don Giovanni
with the Cleveland Opera; I Am My Own
Wife for the Rep/PTTP at the University of
Delaware; Yankee Tavern at the Milwaukee
Rep; and Tosca at Nashville Opera. Noele’s
long collaboration with composer and choreographer Meredith Monk includes the
international touring productions of mercy
& impermanence (scenic realization & lighting design). Her lighting has appeared on
numerous stages including The Brooklyn
Academy of Music, Sydney Opera House,
Houston Grand Opera, Opera Ontario,
Vancouver Opera, Opera Pacific, Portland
Opera, New Orleans Opera, Atlanta Opera,
Madison Opera and the Alley Theatre. As
Lighting Director for Houston Grand Opera,
she supervised the lighting for over 50 operas and designed such productions as Andrei Serban’s Elektra, Dr. Jonathan Miller’s
Der Rosenkavalier, and the world premieres
of Harvey Milk, Desert of Roses and Dracula
Diary. Her Wisconsin AIA award-winning
residential and public space lighting is installed throughout the Midwest.

Leslie Vaglica (Costume Designer)
graduated from UW-Eau Claire and earned
a post-graduate degree from Mt Mary
College. She has worked on productions
for Optimist Theatre, American Players
Theatre, Florentine Opera, Pink Banana
Theatre, and Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
In her free time, Leslie teaches sewing
classes for the Milwaukee Recreation
Department and is the official seamstress
for the Crazy 8’s roller derby team. It’s
been a distinct pleasure to work with
students at UWM for the first time!
Seth Warren-Crow (Sound Designer) is the
Musical Director of the Dance Department
at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
He is a sound designer, sound engineer,
composer, and percussionist. Seth
composes music locally and nationally
for dance and theater performances and
regularly collaborates with performance
artist Heather Warren-Crow as warrencrow+warren-crow. Seth received a BA
in English and Religious Studies from
Lawrence University in Wisconsin and a
MFA in Electronic Music and Recording
Media from Mills College in California. At
UWM. he teaches courses in sound
art, music, and digital media, and is a
sound engineer and composer for dance
department performances.

YOUR

UWM Peck School of
the Arts February
Programs
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February Programs

Makers in Print celebrates the global
vitality of printmaking through works
selected by coordinating curators from
find us on
THAN 450 EVENTS
ALL YEAR
Argentina, China, Mexico,MORE
Poland,
The exhibition
is aLONG!
central component of
the
41st
conference
of
Southern
Graphics
South Africa and South Korea.
BOX OFFICE: 414-229-4308
arts.uwm.edu/tickets
visit
Council :International
(SGCI) hosted
byyoa.uwm.edu
the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
Curated selection of works by SGCI
and the University of Wisconsinhonorees
—Lesley
Dill,
Margo Humphrey,
8
UWM
Peck School
of Art
Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts from
Frances Myers, Alison Saar and

progr a m notes
Pilgrim Soul
Augusta Read Thomas
Pilgrim Soul was commissioned by Matthew Kuhn as a surprise fiftieth birthday gift
for his wife Alyssa Kuhn and it was premiered on her exact fiftieth birthday, 10 February,
2011 at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall by Matthew Kuhn, English Horn; Alyssa Kuhn, Violin;
and Julieta Mihai, Violin.
The music of Augusta READ THOMAS is majestic, it is elegant, it is lyrical, it is “boldly
considered music that celebrates the sound of the instruments and reaffirms the vitality
of orchestral music. (Philadelphia Inquirer) Her deeply personal music is guided by her
particular sense of musical form, rhythm, timbre, and harmony. But given the striking
individuality and voice, her music is affected by history — in Thomas’ words, “Old music
deserves new music and new music needs old music.” For Thomas, this means cherishing
her place within the musical tradition and giving credit to those who have forged the
musical paths she follows and from which she innovates. “You can hear the perfumes
of my metaphorical grandparents,” Thomas states. “There is a wonderful tradition that I
adore, I understand, and care about, but I also have my two feet facing forward.” Thomas’
vision toward the future, her understanding of the present, and her respect for the past is
evident in her art, in her teaching, and in her citizenship.
When Director of the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood last summer,
Augusta’s welcome-letter started, “Music’s eternal quality is its capacity for change,
transformation and renewal. No one composer, style, school of thought and practice or
historical period can claim a monopoly of music’s truths.”
Most striking in her music, though, is its exquisite humanity and poetry of the soul.
The notion that music takes over where words cease is hardly more true than in Thomas’
nuanced and colorful musical voice.
Augusta recounts that Matthew asked for a short work, he also specified its ravishingly
beautiful instrumentation, and she remembers that he remarked, “that the general ‘tone’
of the music was to be introspective, soulful, passionate, showing love, and perhaps
even sorrow.” Continuing on, Matthew mentioned, “I am not interested in a “ashy, millionnotes-fly-by, dazzling, fanfare-like trio for this ‘particular’ occasion.”
With Matthew’s wishes in her mind and ear, she set out to compose a work of soul,
melodious beauty, rich long lines, and masterful intricately-woven counterpoint. Pilgrim
Soul was inspired by this beautiful and heartfelt poem by William Butler Yeats:
WHEN YOU ARE OLD
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
10

UWM Peck School of Art

progr a m notes

c o n t.

Augusta said about Pilgrim Soul, “Although this music is highly notated, precise,
carefully structured, thoughtfully proportioned, and so forth…and as you have 3
independent musicians elegantly working together, from the very specific and nuanced
text, I like my music to have the feeling that it is organically being self-propelled – on the
spot. As if we listeners, the audience, are overhearing a captured improvisation.
“I like my music to be played so that the ‘inner-life’ of the different rhythmic syntaxes
is specific, with characterized phrasing of many colors, characters, and harmonies, etc. –
keeping it ultra alive – such that it always sounds spontaneous.”
Recently, Augusta said, “The desire to make music comes from very deep inside and
from profound necessity. The urge to make and share music (to communicate, if you will)
is vivid, and implied in this passion to express is a recipient of the expression – someone,
anyone who is a willing listener. We composers write music that craves a listener and
believe that if one creates music that is honest, personal and human, and is technically
and imaginatively elegrant in its articulation, it will find its audience – whoever or
wherever they may be.”
Trio in B-Flat for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 11
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven’s output of piano trios comprises six major works, including the great
“Ghost” and “Archduke” trios. Tonight’s trio, Op. 11, is one of two he wrote in which the
upper part, scored for the violin in a piano trio, is played by the clarinet. (The other, by
the way, is Op. 38, an arrangement of his famous Septet.) While Beethoven allowed
performance of these trios with either clarinet or violin, clarinet performances are more
common today. In the true sense of chamber music, the three players are complete
equals here, each taking on both prominent and subordinate roles over the course of the
work.
The first movement opens with a bold, unison ascending and then descending idea,
and the secondary material consists of a pair of themes, the first presented by the solo
piano. The development section seizes upon both of these, beginning with the solo
piano idea and then extensively treating the descending portion of the opening. The
slow movement, in sonata form, opens with a lyrical melody in the cello, and when the
clarinet and violin take it up, the piano responds with an echo-like effect.
The finale is a theme and variations movement with a theme taken from a popular
contemporary opera. Beethoven wrote the trio in 1798, and the opera that was
Beethoven’s source, L’Amor marinaro by Joseph Weigl (1766-1846), had just premiered
the previous year. The variations are on the aria “Pria ch’io l’impegno,” a popular tune,
exemplifying a trend in Beethoven’s compositions in the later 1790s: during that period,
he wrote several other variation sets for solo piano on popular tunes by such composers
as Paisiello, Grétry, Salieri, and Süssmayr. In the trio, the first variation is for solo piano,
and then the piano is silent in the second. Many sets of classical variations contain one
variation in the minor, but here there are two, as both numbers 4 and 7 are minor. After
the ninth variation, which begins with canonic octaves in the solo piano, the piano
effects a meter shift to 6/8, one that shifts back to the original just before the work ends,
as boldly as it began.
Beethoven program notes written by Timothy Noonan

February Programs

11

progr a m notes

c o n t.

Piano Trio in E minor “Dumky”, Op. 90 (1891)
Antonin Dvorak
Tempered by years of largely unrecognized creativity, Dvorak maintained his attitudes
and work habits amid a flow of professorships and honorary doctorates that began
around 1890. As his reputation blossomed throughout Europe and America, Dvorák
immersed himself still more deeply in the musical heritage of his native Bohemia. In
November of 1890, he launched one of his most daring and nationalistic projects, a piano
trio that was constructed of a chain of six original Dumky.
Derived from the Russian term duma, a Dumka (plural: dumky) was originally a Slavic
narrative folk song of melancholy character. In Dvorák’s hands, the basic character of this
form was often contrasted by episodes of vigorous gaiety. He first used the form in his
Dumka for solo piano, Op. 35 (1876). He employed it again in the slow movements of his
String Sextet (1878), his Slavonic Dance No. 2 (1878), his String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 51
(1878-79), his Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81 (1887), and most strikingly, in the present work.
Here, the first three Dumky are conceived as a “first movement” unit; the constantly
shifting moods of these artistically stylized dances provide many gratifying passages,
particularly for the cellist. The fourth Dumka is generally reminiscent of a slow
movement, while the fifth has a scherzo-like character. Containing greater contrasts
within itself, the sixth Dumka completes the work with a rousing final section.
Dvorak program notes by Roger Ruggeri
about rembr andt cha mber pl ayers
Founded in 1990, the Rembrandt Chamber Players is composed of six of the finest
musicians in the Chicago area. In addition, a regular group of “Friends” appear annually
with the core ensemble. The ensemble successfully maintains an unusually wide
repertoire, performing Baroque music in a historically informed manner as well as 21st
century compositions with eclectic instrumentations. Since its inceptions Rembrandt has
commissioned thirteen new works and four arrangements by renowned composers from
the Chicago area and beyond. Hailed as “one of the Chicago area’s preeminent chamber
music groups” (Chicago Tribune), Rembrandt appears regularly on fine arts radio station
WFMT, both live and in a series of rebroadcasts of concert highlights during the summers.
Deeply committed to fostering chamber music education and appreciation,
Rembrandt founded an Annual High School Chamber Music Competition in 1995, one of
a few in the country. The Rembrandt Young Artists program, founded in 2006, provides
performance opportunities and coaching sessions for the competition winners. In 2011
a new collaborative relationship was inaugurated with the Young Women’s Leadership
Charter School in Chicago. This project enabled members of the musicians, a former
winner, and an Advisory Board member to introduce chamber music to the students
in preparation for a concert by the Rembrandt Young Artists. This collaboration will be
continued and enhanced this season.

12

UWM Peck School of Art

artist Biogr aphies
Kathleen Brauer
Kathleen Brauer made her solo debut
with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
at the age of 15. She holds degrees from
the University of Michigan and Yale. She
has appeared with numerous chamber
ensembles, including the Ensemble
Modern (Frankfurt, Germany), Rembrandt
Chamber Players (Chicago), the Lyric
Chamber Ensemble (Detroit), the Museum
Chamber Players (Ann Arbor) and the
Pintele Trio. She is a member of the
orchestras of Lyric Opera of Chicago, the
Santa Fe Opera, and Music of the Baroque.
Barbara Haffner
Barbara Haffner, cello, is a graduate of
the Eastman School of Music, Assistant
Principal Cellist of the Lyric Opera of
Chicago Orchestra and Principal Cellist
with Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra and
Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. A former
member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ms
Haffner has had solo repertoire written
for her by several composers including
Pulitzer Prize winner, Richard Wernick. She
has been a featured soloist with the Dallas,
Philadelphia, Music of the Baroque and
Symphony II orchestra.
Stefan Kartman
Stefan Kartman is currently Associate
Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at
the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
In addition to solo performance, he has
performed to critical acclaim as cellist of
the Kneisel Trio and the Florestan Duo. He
has given performances and masterclasses
in conservatories and schools of music
worldwide including the Cleveland
Institute of Music (USA), the Xiamen
Conservatory of Music (China), and the
D’Albaco Conservatory of Music (Italy),
among many others.
An avid chamber music enthusiast, Dr.
Kartman has served on the faculties of the
Alfred University Summer Chamber Music
Institute, the MidAmerica Chamber Music
Festival, the Troy Youth Chamber Music

Institute, the Green Mountain Chamber
Music Festival, and was artistic director of
the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival. His
early training in chamber music was with
his father, Myron Kartman, of the Antioch
String Quartet and during his formal
training as a chamber musician, he studied
with members of the Guarneri and Juilliard
String Quartets and the Beaux Arts Trio.
Stefan Kartman received degrees from
Northwestern University, The Juilliard
School of Music, and his doctorate from
Rutgers University. He has been teaching
assistant to Harvey Shapiro and Zara
Nelsova of the Juilliard School and proudly
acknowledges the pedagogical heritage
of his teachers Shapiro, Nelsova, Bernard
Greenhouse, Alan Harris, and
Anthony Cooke.
Todd Levy
Principal Clarinet of the MSO and The Santa
Fe Opera orchestras, two-time Grammy
Award winner Todd Levy has performed as
a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Mostly Mozart,
with the Israel Philharmonic, and at the
White House; as chamber musician with
members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion,
Miami quartets, James Levine, Christoph
Eschenbach, and Mitsuko Uchida; and as
guest principal clarinet with the New York
Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and
frequently for Seiji Ozawa and Ricardo Muti
in Japan. He has performed world premiere
concerti or chamber works by composers
such as John Harbison, Joan Tower, Peter
Schickele, Paquito D’Rivera, Morton
Subotnick, and Marc Neikrug and performs
on the new release of Marc Neikrug’s
Through Roses chamber work with violinist
Pinchas Zuckerman, actor John Rubenstein
and the composer conducting.
He has recorded the Brahms Clarinet
Sonatas for Avie, and three educational
book/CD’s of clarinet competition works
for G. Schirmer/Hal Leonard, and a new
edition/CD of the Bernstein Clarinet Sonata
for Boosey and Hawkes/Hal Leonard. He
performs exclusively on Vandoren reeds,
February Programs

13

artist Biogr aphies

c o n t.

mouthpieces, and ligatures, and Selmer
Signature clarinets. He is also on the
faculty of UW/Milwaukee and is co-director
of Chamber Music Milwaukee.
For a more complete biography, visit
toddlevy.org.
Robert Morgan
Robert Morgan, oboe, is Solo English Horn
and Assistant Principal Oboe of the Lyric
Opera of Chicago Orchestra and Principal
Oboist with Music of the Baroque and
Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. He
coaches woodwind chamber music at
Northwestern University and maintains a
private studio. He is a frequent soloist with
numerous area orchestras and musical
organizations and has performed at the
White House with Music of the Baroque
and with members of the Guarnieri Quartet
in Maryland. He is a graduate of Indiana
University and also studied with Ray Still,
Marc Lifschey and John Mack.
Ilana Setapen
Since her solo orchestral debut at age 15
with the Amarillo Symphony, Ilana Setapen
has been flourishing as a violinist with
a powerful and original voice. She is the
newly appointed Associate Concertmaster
of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and
the Assistant Concertmaster of the Grant
Park Festival Orchestra in Chicago. She has
previously been the Concertmaster of the
Riverside County Philharmonic, the Juilliard
Orchestra, the Colburn Orchestra, the
National Repertory Orchestra, and the USC
Thornton Symphony.
Solo appearances have been with the
Milwaukee Symphony, the Pasadena Pops,
and the National Repertory Orchestra,
among others. Also an avid chamber
musician, Ilana was for two years the
first violinist of the award-winning Calla
Quartet in New York.
Ilana studied at USC, the Colburn School,
and Juilliard, with world-renowned
teachers such as Robert Lipsett, Donald
Weilerstein, and Ronald Copes.
14

UWM Peck School of Art

Jeannie Yu
Jeannie Yu, piano, a native of Korea, is an
award-winning pianist. Her honors include
first prize in the Frinna Awerbuch Piano
Competition in New York, and first prize
in the Kingsville Piano Competition in
Texas. She also earned the prestigious Gina
Bachauer Memorial Scholarship Award, a
full scholarship to The Juilliard School of
Music for both the bachelor and master’s
degree programs.
Yu has performed as a soloist with the
Portland Symphony in Maine, the Marina
del Rey-Westchester Symphony, the Flint
Symphony in Michigan, the Des Moines
Brandenburg Ensemble, the Des Moines
Symphony, and most recently with the
Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra in China.
She is in great demand as a chamber
musician and soloist in the greater New
York and Chicago areas, and has appeared
with the Rembrandt Chamber Players
and on Robert Sherman’s Young Artist
Showcase on WQXR in New York and WOI
radio in Des Moines, Iowa. Yu performs
regularly with her husband cellist Stefan
Kartman in the Florestan Duo.
She has taught at the Alfred Summer
Chamber Institute in New York, the Drake
University Community School of Music,
the Mid-America Summer Chamber Music
Institute at Ohio Wesleyan University,
the Milwaukee Summer Chamber Music
Festival, the Troy Public Library Chamber
Music Institute in Michigan, and the
Wisconsin Conservatory.
She has studied with Ruth V. Sitjar, Martin
Canin, Susan Starr, Ilana Vered, and Ann
Schein. She received her Doctor of Musical
Arts degree at the Peabody Institute
of Music.

progr a m notes
Written by Timothy Noonan, Senior Lecturer - Music History and Literature
Saint-Saëns, String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 112
By the time Camille Saint-Saëns wrote the first of his two string quartets, he was a
famous and very well-traveled fellow. He made a number of visits to Algeria, including
one following the death of his mother in 1888, in an effort to regain his health after
the trauma of her loss. He took a concert tour, combined with leisure travel, in 1890,
during which he visited parts of southern Europe, South America, the Canary Islands,
Scandinavia, and East Asia. 1893 brought an honorary doctorate from Cambridge
University. When he composed the first quartet in 1899, he was already in his mid-sixties.
The Quartet No. 1 was dedicated to Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, a musician deeply
committed to French chamber music, with the idea that Ysaÿe’s quartet would give
the premiere. The first movement, after a hushed introduction, makes this clear, with
its virtuosic writing and high register for the first violinist. The scherzo-like second
movement is a set of variations on a popular tune that originated in Brittany. The broad,
lyrical slow movement reminds us at times of the slow movements in Beethoven’s late
quartets. And the finale, energetic and serious, maintains the quartet’s minor mode to
the end.
Penderecki, String Quartet No. 3 “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary”
Born in Dębica, Poland, Krzysztof Penderecki stands as the most prominent composer
the country had produced since Chopin. Already in his 20s, his compositions gained
a considerable reputation for their innovative national styles and non-traditional
instrumental techniques. He was composer in residence at Yale University in 1973-78,
and he held the post of rector at the Kraków Academy from 1972 into the 1980s. He is
also active as a conductor, having held orchestra posts and conducted recordings of
his own works. His Threnody “To the Victims of Hiroshima” of 1960, scored for 52 string
players, uses graphic notation and stands among the most celebrated avant-garde works
of its time.
To date, Penderecki has written three string quartets. The first (1960) is dominated by
non-traditional playing techniques, including percussive effects made by striking parts
of the instruments. While the second (1968, revised 1970) deals more directly with pitch,
the sounds are again produced in highly unconventional ways. His latest contribution,
which we hear today, is his third (2008), called “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary.” It was
commissioned by Montclair State University (Montclair, New Jersey) and the University
of Richmond, and its premiere took place at a performance in Warsaw by the Shanghai
Quartet that marked the composer’s 75th birthday, late in 2008. Set in one movement
that is made up of five sections, its style is more traditional than its two avant-garde
predecessors. The work opens with a vivid melody for the solo viola, followed by an
energetic vivace (which recurs during the work). Subsequently the styles of waltz and
nocturne are evoked. As the work progresses, the composer calls for very fast tempos,
in keeping with his penchant for musical extremes. And toward the end comes a gypsy
melody, which Penderecki identified as a tune he heard his father play on his violin when
he was a boy. The work’s climactic passage is next, in which the themes heard earlier
are combined in an intense culmination. The second violin quietly brings the quartet
to a close.

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UWM Peck School of Art

progr a m notes

c o n t.

Verdi, String Quartet in E minor
Hailed as among the greatest operatic composers in history, Giuseppe Verdi had
already composed all but two of his operas when he wrote his only string quartet. He
had recently completed Aida (1871) and announced that he would now retire from
composition. But he did not, though it would be sixteen years until he wrote another
opera; Otello followed in 1887, and his final opera, Falstaff, dates from 1893, premiered
at La Scala when he was 79 years old. During this long interim, he composed both the
quartet and the great Requiem (1874). He wrote the quartet in March 1873 while he
was in Naples to supervise performances of Aida. Initially, Verdi planned the work as a
private one, and it was first performed for friends in April, but he decided to publish it in
1876. Though the opening theme of the first movement is derived from a motive from
Aida, the quartet is not operatic, but rather shows Verdi as a composer quite capable
of inventing instrumentally-based themes and developing them in the manner of the
quartet composers who came before him. In the second movement, constructed in an
ABA shape with a coda, the opening theme is in a style reminiscent of a mazurka. The
Prestissimo third movement, essentially a scherzo, features a folk-like trio section opened
delicately by the cello. And the finale is marked “Scherzo-Fuga,” treating a subject made
almost entirely of staccato eighth notes with such traditional fugal techniques as stretto,
canon, and inversion.
T h e F i n e a r t s q ua r t e t
The Fine Arts Quartet, “one of the gold-plated names in chamber music” (Washington
Post), ranks among the most distinguished ensembles of our time, with an illustrious
history of performing success and an extensive recording legacy. Founded in Chicago in
1946, and based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1963, the Quartet is one
of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. Each
season, violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico (who have been playing together nearly
30 years), violist Nicolò Eugelmi, and cellist Robert Cohen perform worldwide in such
cities as New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul,
Jerusalem, Mexico City, and Toronto.
The Quartet has recorded more than 200 works. Their latest releases on Naxos include:
chamber masterpieces by Schumann, the world premiere recording of Efrem Zimbalist’s
Quartet in its 1959 revised edition, the world premiere digital recording of Eugène
Ysaÿe’s long-lost masterpiece for quartet and string orchestra, “Harmonies du Soir”; Fritz
Kreisler’s String Quartet, the two Saint-Saëns String Quartets, three Beethoven String
Quintets; the Franck String Quartet and Piano Quintet; Fauré Piano Quintets; complete
Bruckner chamber music; complete Mendelssohn String Quintets; “Four American
Quartets” by Antheil, Herrmann, Glass, Evans; complete Schumann Quartets; and the
Glazunov String Quintet and Novelettes. Aulos Musikado released their complete
Dohnányi String Quartets and Piano Quintets, and Lyrinx released both their complete
early Beethoven Quartets and complete Mozart String Quintets in SACD format. In
2013, Naxos plans to release their recording of Saint-Saëns’s brilliant piano quintet and
piano quartets.
The Quartet’s recent recordings have received many distinctions. Their Fauré Quintets
CD on Naxos with pianist Cristina Ortiz was singled out by the 2012 Gramophone
Classical Music Guide as a “Gramophone award-winner and recording of legendary
status”, and was among the recordings for which musical producer Steven Epstein
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T h e F i n e a r t s q ua r t e t

c o n t.

won a 2009 Grammy® Award (“Producer of the Year, Classical”). The Quartet’s Franck
CD was named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone Magazine in February, 2010, and their
Glazunov, Mendelssohn, and Fauré CD’s were each named a “Recording of the Year”
by Musicweb International (2007-2009). In addition, their “Four American Quartets” album
was designated a “BBC Music Magazine Choice” in 2008, their Schumann CD was named
“one of the very finest chamber music recordings of the year” by the American Record
Guide in 2007, and their Mozart Quintets SACD box set was named a “Critic’s Choice 2003”
by the American Record Guide. Nearly all of the Quartet’s Naxos CDs were selected for
Grammy® Awards entry lists in the “Best Classical Album” and/or “Best Chamber Music
Performance” categories. Special recognition was given for the Quartet’s commitment
to contemporary music: a 2003-2004 national CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous
Programming, given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of
Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
The Quartet members have helped form and nurture many of today’s top international
young ensembles. They have been guest professors at the national music conservatories
of Paris and Lyon, as well as at the summer music schools of Yale University and Indiana
University. They also appear regularly as jury members of major competitions such
as Evian, Shostakovich, and Bordeaux. Documentaries on the Fine Arts Quartet have
appeared on both French and American Public Television. For more information, please
visit: www.fineartsquartet.com.
Biogr aphies
RALPH EVANS,
violinist, prizewinner in
the 1982 International
Tchaikovsky
Competition in
Moscow, concertized as
soloist throughout
Europe and North
America before succeeding Leonard Sorkin
as first violinist of the Fine Arts Quartet.
Evans has recorded over 85 solo and
chamber works to date. These include the
two Bartók Sonatas for violin and piano,
whose performance the New York Times
enthusiastically recommended for its
“searching insight and idiomatic flair,” and
three virtuoso violin pieces by Lukas Foss
with the composer at the piano. Evans
graduated cum laude from Yale University,
where he also received a doctorate. While a
Fulbright scholar in London, he studied
with Szymon Goldberg and Nathan
Milstein, and soon won the top prize in a
number of major American competitions,
including the Concert Artists Guild
Competition in New York, and the National
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UWM Peck School of Art

Federation of Music Clubs National Young
Artist Competition. Evans has also received
recognition for his work as a composer. His
award winning composition “Nocturne” has
been performed on American Public
Television and his String Quartet No.1,
recently released on the Naxos label, has
been warmly greeted in the press (“rich
and inventive” - Toronto Star; “whimsical
and clever, engaging and amusing” - All
Music Guide; “vigorous and tuneful”
- Montreal Gazette; “seductive, modern
sonorities” - France Ouest; “a small
masterpiece” - Gli Amici della Musica).
EFIM BOICO, violinist,
enjoys an international
career that has
included solo
appearances under
conductors Zubin
Mehta, Carlo Maria
Guilini, Claudio Abbado
and Erich Leinsdorf, and performances
with Daniel Barenboim, Radu Lupu and
Pinchas Zuckerman. After receiving his

Biogr aphies

c o n t.

musical training in his native Russia, he
emigrated in 1967 to Israel, where he was
appointed Principal Second Violin of the
Israel Philharmonic - a position he held for
eleven years. In 1971, he joined the Tel Aviv
Quartet as second violinist, touring the
world with guest artists such as André
Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 1979,
Boico was appointed concertmaster and
soloist of the Orchestre de Paris under
Daniel Barenboim, positions he held until
1983, when he joined the Fine Arts
Quartet. Boico has been guest professor at
the Paris and Lyons Conservatories in
France, and the Yehudi Menuhin School in
Switzerland. He is also a frequent juror
representing the United States in the
prestigious London, Evian, and
Shostakovich Quartet Competitions. As
music professor at the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, he has received
numerous awards, including the Wisconsin
Public Education Professional Service
Award for distinguished music teaching,
and the Arts Recognition and Talent Search
Award from the National Foundation for
Advancement in the Arts.
NICOLÒ EUGELMI,
violist, joined the Fine
Arts Quartet in July,
2009. He is described
by The Strad magazine
as ‘“a player of rare
perception, with a keen
ear for timbres and a
vivid imagination.” As soloist, recitalist, and
member of chamber ensembles, he has
performed around the world, collaborating
most notably with conductors Mario
Bernardi, Jean-Claude Casadesus, and
Charles Dutoit. Eugelmi completed his
musical training at the University of British
Columbia and the Juilliard School. In 1999,
he was appointed Associate Principal
Violist of the Orchestre Symphonique de
Montréal, and in 2005, he became Principal

Violist of the Canadian Opera Company.
Eugelmi’s recording, Brahms: Sonatas and
Songs, was named a “Strad Selection”
by The Strad, and his recording, Brahms
Lieder, a collaboration with Marie-Nicole
Lemieux, was named “Editor’s Choice”
by Gramophone. He has recorded regularly
for the CBC and Radio-Canada. His mentor,
Gerald Stanick, was a member of the Fine
Arts Quartet from 1963 to 1968.
ROBERT COHEN,
cellist, made his
concerto debut at the
age of twelve at the
Royal Festival Hall
London and
throughout his
distinguished
international career, he has been hailed as
one of the foremost cellists of our time. “It
is easy to hear what the fuss is about, he
plays like a God” (New York Stereo Review).
“Cohen can hold an audience in the palm
of his hand” (The Guardian). Invited to
perform concertos world-wide by
conductors Claudio Abbado, Kurt Masur,
Riccardo Muti, and Sir Simon Rattle, Cohen
has also collaborated in chamber music
with many eminent artists such as Yehudi
Menuhin and the Amadeus String Quartet,
with whom he recorded the Schubert Cello
Quintet on Deutsche Grammophon. At age
nineteen, Cohen recorded the Elgar
Concerto with the London Philharmonic
Orchestra for the EMI label, and since then,
he has recorded much of the cello
repertoire for Sony, Decca, DGG, EMI, and
BIS. Cohen, who studied with the
legendary artists William Pleeth, Jacqueline
du Pré, and Mstislav Rostropovich, is an
inspirational teacher who has given master
classes all over the world. He is a Professor
at the Royal Academy of Music in London
and is director of the Charleston Manor
Festival in the south of England. He joined
the Fine Arts Quartet in January 2012.

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